Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II "the Liberator" of Russia (29 April 1818-13 March 1881) was Czar (Emperor) of the Russian Empire from 2 March 1855 to 13 March 1881, succeeding Nicholas I of Russia and preceding Alexander III of Russia. Alexander was nicknamed "the Liberator" for emancipating the serfs in 1861, and he passed several reforms. However, he was assassinated by the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary movement in 1881.

Biography
Alexander was born in Moscow, Russian Empire on 29 April 1818, the son of Czar Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia. Alexander became the new Czar of Russia in 1855 on the death of his father, and he managed to extricate Russia from the Crimean War against the United Kingdom and France in 1856. Alexander turned his attention to Russia's domestic issues, primarily serfdom.

Reforms
In 1861, Czar Alexander passed the Emancipation Reform of 1861, abolishing serfdom and giving land to the emancipated serfs. He also established the rural zemstvo system in 1864, and he gave representation to the townspeople and private landowners. In 1864, he reformed the legal and judicial system (introducing trial by jury and public trials), created municipal dumas in 1870, and reformed the Imperial Russian Army in 1874. Alexander would crush the Polish nationalist uprising of 1863 and introduced a Russification campaign in Poland, and he promoted expansionism in Siberia and Central Asia. Russia acquired maritime provinces northeast of Manchuria, establishing the port of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan. Alexander's reforms and actions served only to increase demands for further reform, and middle-class radicals launched the narodnik movement in the 1870s. Alexander considered the possibility of further reforms due to a rise in opposition in the 1870s, and interior minister Michael Loris-Melikov proposed establishing a representative council to advise the czar on reforms. On 13 March 1881, Alexander agreed to its formation.

Assassination
Later on 13 March, Alexander and some cossacks headed to the Mikhailovsky Manege for the military roll call, a hobby that Alexander had taken up. As the carriage moved along the narrow streets, Nikolai Rysakov threw a package bomb under the carriage, but the bomb failed to dent the vehicle. Rysakov was arrested almost immediately, but he shouted out for Ignacy Hryniewiecki, who threw a bomb at the emperor's feet. Alexander was mortally wounded, with his legs being torn away, his stomach ripped open, and his face mutilated. He was given communion and last rites before he died later that day of his wounds.